Not Your Average Sunday Summary

Hi everyone!

Our conversation ranged sort of all over the place, but we started with the definitions of

"tautological" and "teleological." *Ahem* Per Wikipedia:


In rhetoric, a tautology (from Greek ταὐτός, "the same" and λόγος, "word/idea") is a logical argument constructed in such a way, generally by repeating the same concept or assertion using different phrasing or terminology, that the proposition as stated is logically irrefutable, while obscuring the lack of evidence or valid reasoning supporting the stated conclusion.

TL;DR: tautological pertains to reasoning that we don't want to use.

Teleological is as follows:

teleology

[tel-ee-ol-uh-jee, tee-lee-] 

 


Word Origin
noun, Philosophy.
1.
the doctrine that final causes exist.
2.
the study of the evidences of design or purpose in nature.
3.
such design or purpose.
4.
the belief that purpose and design are a part of or are apparent innature.
5.
(in vitalist philosophy) the doctrine that phenomena are guided not only by mechanical forces but that they also move toward certain goals of self-realization.

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I think it is safe to say that these are related. Teleology will use tautology to obscure the fact that "design" and "purpose" are often illusions brought on by the human resistance to the idea that the universe is (at very least often) an indifferent and random place.

We, then, went on to talk about potential future topics, future activities, the ins and outs, as it were, of those future activities.

There will be more posts on this page and on our content page in the coming days. I hope that everyone has a fantastic week and joins us next time for our Spectacular Secular Sunday! In the meantime, here are some notes about our discussion:

Also, I think, next time we're planning on having a topic - so stay tuned!

-Sean

Short, Sweet Summary for September 10th.

Today:

As per usual, we had a meandering discussion that wound around a variety of topics. This time, we touched on politics, philosophy, and linguistics - to name a few. I'm going to endeavor to keep my summaries short from here on out because this time of year (the beginning of the school year) I'm up to my armpits in work. We talked about the structuring of the education system and the boons and banes of public/private sector of education. People shared personal experiences in public and private education. We talked a lot about nuance and the necessity in expressing clarity and being concise. Specific points touched on tribalism, America's arrival at its "place" in the world, what that place is, and what people believe it to be. Jon pointed out that the government generally does not do a great job of changing tracks once certain programs have momentum. We talked about competition vs domination and the future of the school system.

There was discussion of why politics come up in our discussions so much and whether or not that can be avoided. Lyn showed off her oh-so-stylish FAACT t-shirt and told us about this great wine. So, we joked about infowars' Alex Jones hocking his junk - not a goal of our group.

We talked about future discussion topics - Artificial Intelligence and That Which We Do Actually Believe came to the surface as good ideas. I'll be in touch for when we are going to do those, but we also said if you have any ideas for future topics, let me know. 

Upcoming events:

Don't forget! Next weekend is Greensboro Beautiful! If you're interested, here is the sign up!

Also, Lyn's movie night and potluck is nigh!

OH! CHECK THE CONTENT PAGE OF THIS SITE FOR SOME OLDER UPDATES!!!